added criticisms of his own and extracts from the other works of Flaccus, the whole embraced in twenty books, with the title, De significatione Verborum. This rifacimento of the work of Flaccus furnishes, as I have before said, an imperfect prototype of the modern Latin dictionary. The arrangement is alphabetical to the extent of placing together words beginning with the same letter but grouped in a double series. In the first series the grouping is not merely according to the first letter, but also to the second, third, and even fourth; but the groupings are irregular; for example, the letter R series begins not with Ra but Ru; then follow groups in Ro, Rum, Rh, Re, and Ri mixed; then Ra, and, again, Re and Ri mixed. In the second series regard is paid simply to the initial letter, though with a certain ground of connection; thus under P we find groups of words, as, Palatualis, Portenta, Postularia, Pestifera, Peremptalia, Pullus-all relating to sacred rites; then Proprius sobrino, Possessio, Præfecturæ, Parret, Postum, Patrocinia, Posticam lineam—relating to civil law; and Pomptina, Papiria, Pupinnia, Pupillia-names of tribes, and so on with other groups.

This abridgment by Festus was itself abridged in the eighth century by Paul, the son of Warnefried, better known as Paulus Diaconus, according to the commonly received, but not undoubted, tradition. Whoever, whether Paulus or some unknown person, was the author of this last abridgment, the work was very poorly executed, and the epitome of Paulus is to be valued, not by virtue of intrinsic and independent merit, but because it has preserved something of the great work of Flaccus and Festus, which would otherwise have perished utterly. The early printed editions, up to the close of the fifteenth century, contained only the work of Paulus. In 1510 there was published at Milan a volume containing Nonius Marcellus, Festus, Paulus, and Varro, wherein the remains of Festus were incorporated with Paulus, and thus gave rise to the confused blending of the two authors, which prevailed until Antonius Angus, in his edition, (Venice, 1559-60,) gave both a correct collation of the Farnese MS., and a separation of the original work of Festus from that of Paulus. Lindemann, in the second volume of his valuable Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum, (Leipsic, 1831-40,) gives a good edition, embracing a

complete separation of the work of Festus and Paulus, a careful revision of the text, and a large number of notes. The best edition by far is that of K. O. Müller, (Leipsic, 1839, 4to.,) which contains the best results of careful and critical investigations into the history, plan, and text of the several elements which make up the work now given under the name of Festus.

A survey of the field of European literature, if such can be said to have then existed, for a long period after the age of Festus, presents but few examples of efforts made in the direction of lexicography. The overthrow of the Western Roman Empire installed, it is true, a new and a more active race of political masters throughout its domains, but their activities were exhausted in the destructive work of war and rapine-in destroying the monuments of the past, not in perpetuating them. What little of ancient learning there was left found its refuge in the bosom of the Christian Church, which, like Noah's ark, was destined to pass in safety over the turbulent waters that engulfed most of the structures based on classic institutions and knowledge. The Latin language was preserved and held in honor by the clergy and monks. The ritual of the Church and the standards of faith, as contained in the writings of the Fathers of the West, were enshrined in the language of the former masters of the Roman world. But while it escaped destruction in the prevailing deluge, it gives proof of defilement by the surging waves in the sediment of numerous barbarisms in words and grammar which disfigure the degenerate Latinity of the Middle Ages.

The influence of the Church was strongly exerted in favor of the writings of the ecclesiastical fathers as standards both for style and sentiment, and tended constantly to set aside the classic authors. We need not, therefore, be surprised to find in the few lexicographical works originating in this period that greater weight is given to Ambrose and Jerome than to Cicero and Virgil as models to be followed.

Papias, an Italian grammarian who lived in the eleventh century, compiled for the use of his children, from the glossaries of the sixth and seventh centuries, an Elementarium or Lexicon, which, though very imperfect and full of errors and barbarous Latinisms, is yet very curious, and not without a certain value for the information it gives as to manuscripts. The

first edition was published at Milan, in 1476, folio, under the title, Papiae Vocabularium, etc. A more important work in the history of Latin lexicography is the celebrated Catholicon, compiled about A. D. 1286, by Giovanni Balbi, (otherwise known as de Janua or Januensis,) a monk of the order of the Preaching Brothers. The Catholicon is a sort of encyclopedia, and treats of various matters, and contains a copious Latin grammar and dictionary, with abundant quotations from Latin writers. Hallam (Lit. of Eur.) claims higher credit for this work than was generally accorded to it, and thinks that the grammar not only shows "familiarity with the terminology of the old grammarians," but indicates "that a certain attention was beginning to be paid to correctness in writing." As is the case in Papias "little distinction was made between the different gradations of Latinity." How fully Balbi shared the ecclesiastical spirit of his age is shown by his language at the conclusion of the work, where he tells us that with much labor and diligent study he had compiled this book to the glory of God and the glorious Virgin Mary, etc. Its great bulk must, at that time, have greatly restricted its circulation, and it is now chiefly notable for having been one of the works first selected for publication by the founders of the typographic art. The first edition, printed at Mayence in 1460, in folio, by Faust and Schaeffer, is extremely rare and commands a very high price. The Comprehensorium (whose author is only given as Joannes) published at Valentia, in 1475, folio, and the Onomasticon of Nestor Dionysius, published at Milan, in 1483, in folio, are classed among Latin dictionaries belonging to this early period. The Latin dictionaries thus far compiled, as well as some subsequent ones, give explanations in Latin only. About A. D. 1440, Galfridus Grammaticus, an English Dominican monk, compiled the work known as the Promptorium Parvulorum, which was printed by Pynson, in 1499, and was the first printed vocabulary wherein we find inserted words from a modern vernacular tongue, answering to the Latin ones, the English words in this being followed by their sup posed Latin equivalents. Eight editions were published from 1508-28, and recently, under the auspices of the Camden Society, an edition by Albert Way has been brought out in three volumes, 4to., 1835-65. To the same author probably belongs

the Medulla Grammaticis, written in 1483 and printed as the Ortus Vocabulorum by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1500. Thirteen editions from 1509-23.

Nicolo Perotti, Archbishop of Siponto, was the author of the Cornucopiae, which consists of a very prolix commentary on certain portions of the poet, Martial, followed by an alphabetical index. It is not a dictionary proper, but a treasury erudite, undigested materials, from which Calepino and other lexicographers have drawn largely. By setting the example of quoting passages from the classics to support the explanations given, it led the way to great advance in exegesis. The date of compilation is not known, but the first edition was published at Venice in 1489, folio.

The invention of printing and the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, with the consequent dispersion of learned Greeks throughout Western Europe, were events nearly contemporaneous, and alike exerted a powerful influence in giving new impulse to the literary spirit then awakening from the torpor of the Middle Ages. It was at this period that Ambrogio Calepino, an Italian monk of the order of the Augustines, began the preparation of the Latin dictionary to which he devoted the labor of his life until blindness supervened, and which, despite many defects and manifest inferiority to others that followed, was superior to any preceding one, and met for the time, inadequately it may be, the enlarging demands of the new order of things. It was used by scholars every-where during the sixteenth century, and the numerous editions testify to the earnestness of the popular appreciation, if not to its real merits. Calepino has been charged with using too freely materials gathered by the labors of others, especially Valla and Perotti, but no discredit, but rather praise, should attach to the lexicographer who carefully searches for and skillfully appropriates whatever he finds adapted to his purpose, provided due acknowledgment be made. For in this way only can we hope to approximate step by step to the highest grade of a dictionHe was, like his predecessors, deeply imbued with the Church sentiment, and earnestly defended the Latinity of the fathers against the criticisms of the Ciceronians.* His Dic

ary.

Plus apud me Ambrosii, Hieronymi, vel Augustini gravitas et doctrina valet et Graecorum quam L. Vallae studiosa reprehensio.

tionarium, first published at Reggio, (1502,) was enlarged in succeeding editions, by adding to the original explanations corresponding ones in other tongues, until in the Lyons' edition of 1586 it appeared as a polyglot in ten languages, and in that of Basle, 1590-1627, in one of eleven. Facciolati reduced the number to seven, revised, improved, and published it at Padua, in 1718, two volumes, folio. Of this revision there have been many reprints, sometimes with new title-pages. Hallam says of this work, "It is still, if not the best, the most complete polyglot lexicon of the European languages.”

The historical sketch of the principal Latin dictionaries produced in the sixteenth century begins with one whose appearance dates an epoch in the history of Latin lexicography, and gave new impulse to the zeal for the study of the ancient classic writings which marks so strikingly the literary activity of this century. The elder Robert Stephens (Estienne or Etienne in French) belonged to the famous family of French printers, editors, and publishers, of whom Disraeli ("Cur. of Lit.,") thus writes: "There was not one of this large family without honorable recognition for labor and knowledge, and in their wives and daughters they found learned assistants. Chalmers says, 'They were at once the ornament and reproach of the age in which they lived. They were all men of great learning, all extensive benefactors to literature, and all persecuted or unfortunate."" Himself a man of great learning for the time, well versed in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, of practiced skill in the printer's art, possessed of good, sound sense and of untiring industry, and, withal, a Protestant, and therefore free from that undue deference to the Fathers as models of purity and style which detracts so from the value of Balbi and Calepino, Stephens was fitted to prepare (using the words of Collier's Morery) "the most compleat dictionary that ever had been seen till then of the Latin tongue." His Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (first edition, 1531-32; the last from his hands, 1543, three volumes, folio) was the product of great labor and research, and has been to after compilers an invaluable repertory of material. Its distinguishing features are an endeavor to foster purity of style by exhibiting the proper use of words as well in the anomalies of idioms as in the delicate variations of sense as found exemplified in the best writers;